Air Niugini Offers New International Connections

Papua New Guinea's National airline, Air Niugini has recently signed Interline E-ticketing Agreements with two European airlines, AirFrance and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.

Passengers travelling to/from Port Moresby to/from Europe can benefit from this new agreement between the three airlines.

Within this agreement, Air Niugini, AIR FRANCE and KLM will form an interline arrangement which will encompass Papua New Guinea destination and Air France and KLM Hubs in Paris and Amsterdam.

Papua New Guinea is a fast growing country blessed with numerous natural resources like copper, gold, oil and gas. With a US$ 15 billion LNG project in progress, it adds Papua New Guinea as an important and being much traveled to destination.

Prior to the signing of this agreement, passengers travelling to Europe could only be booked to Air Niugini destinations in the Air Niugini network. Passengers travelling to destinations outside of the Air Niugini network were then advised to book with another carrier online. During their trip passengers then had to collect their checked baggage and re-check in for the next flight, which can be time consuming.

Air Niugini Chief Executive Officer, Mr Wasantha Kumarasiri said “The implementation of the Interline E-ticketing Agreement ensures that Air Niugini and Air France and KLM customers now have easy connections to and from Port Moresby via any of the following Asian destinations Singapore, Hong Kong, Manila and Tokyo to and from any European city in the network of Air France and KLM. Furthermore passengers’ baggages are tagged all the way to/from Europe without hassle. It saves them time from having to re-check baggage for the next flight.”

“We are very happy with this agreement with Air Niugini to offer our customers a seamless service between Papua New Guinea and our extensive network in Europe and vice versa”, says Paul Rombeek, General Manager Singapore, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand, AIR FRANCE KLM.

The signing of this Interline E-ticketing Agreement with Air France and KLM now bring the Air Niugini airline agreements to a total of twenty-eight(28).

Air France and KLM combined operate 208 weekly flights to 24 Asian cities spread over 11 countries. With the combination of the two Hubs (Paris- Charles de Gaulle and Schiphol), they have a vast well-balanced dual network at their disposal, and linking Europe to the rest of the world. This new partnership will offer travellers a wider choice ticketing opportunities and will give potential customers greater flexibility to combine travel on the networks of the Air Niugini and Air France and KLM.

Mr Kumarasiri acknowledged Air France and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines for their trust and confidence by partnering in this arrangement with Air Niugini.